A senior US official has said that Al-Qaeda is a cash-strapped organization that is losing its clout due to a long-running effort by the U.S. and its allies to cut off the terror group's sources of funding.<br/><br/>David Cohen, the Department Assistant Secretary for terrorist financing, said in Washington last night that al-Qaeda's leaders made four public appeals for money in the first half of 2009 to bolster recruitment and training. Mr Cohen said meanwhile the Taliban are in much stronger financial shape and rely on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. <br/><br/>Taliban extort money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers involved in Afghanistan's booming drug trade. Earlier, US Special representative Mr. Richard Holbrooke had said the Taliban get most of their cash from private benefactors in the Persian Gulf. Militant groups are also reported to extort money from the western-funded projects, executed by local contracting agencies.